How to Watch CBS Sports Network Without Cable

Last modified: January 31, 2019

By Stephen Lovely

CBS knows sports. The CBS family of channels plays host to everything from March Madness to the Super Bowl, and their broadcast teams, in-game graphics, and camera work rank with the best of them. So it's no surprise that CBS Sports Network — the CBS channel that is dedicated to sports and nothing but sports — is a must-have channel for sports fans. There's just one problem: that pesky bill that comes each month, charging you through the nose for your cable or satellite subscription. You don't want to keep overpaying, but you don't want to lose the crucial sports coverage you get from CBS Sports Network. So what do you do? Simple: you learn how to watch CBS Sports Network without cable.

And that's why we're here. We're going to show you how to get your hands on a CBS Sports Network live stream and watch all of the CBS Sports action you want to, live, from just about anywhere and using just about any device. Let's get started!

How to Watch CBS Sports Network Online Without Cable

As you may already know – especially if you checked out our post on How to Watch CBS Without Cable – CBS is a broadcast network, which means that you can watch it for free using an antenna. That will net you some great CBS Sports action for free, including NFL broadcasts. But CBS Sports Network – the standalone sports channel that CBS owns — is not an over-the-air channel like its big brother is. And that means you need a pay TV service to watch it. Bummer, right?

Well, it's not as bad as it seems. See, there are other pay TV options out there besides the bulky, overpriced cable and satellite packages that you already know about. We're going to talk about some of those options below. But, first, let's take a moment to talk about these sorts of services more generally.

The services that we'll list below all belong to the same general category of pay TV service: “skinny bundles.” So what is a skinny bundle? The short version is that a skinny bundle is a pay TV service that streams online and (usually) offers slimmer and more cost-effective channel bundles than its cable and satellite counterparts. The slightly longer version is that this is awesome for consumers: online deliver eliminates monopolies and gives subscribers the ability to watch live streams (including, as we'll soon see, CBS Sports live streams) on all sorts of devices from all sorts of locations. The slimmed-down bundles, along with the serious online competition, keep costs down for consumers while still delivering the crucial channels that you can't live without.

Sounds good, right? And, happily for us, there are plenty of skinny bundles that make excellent answers to the question of how to watch CBS Sports Network without cable. Let's meet our candidates!

Hulu with Live TV is the skinny bundle arm of Hulu, a service that you may already know for its popular on-demand streaming options. Hulu with Live TV costs $39.99 per month (as of this writing, that price is set to increase to $44.99 per month in late February of 2019) and includes Hulu's on-demand content as well as live streaming television channels. And, as you might have guessed by now, Hulu with Live TV's live channels include CBS Sports Network. Like many of its competitors, Hulu with Live TV offers a great free trial – just click the link below to sign up for that.

fuboTV loves sports – in fact, it used to be a soccer-specific skinny bundle. That's in the past, now, and fuboTV's re-launch as a more general-interest skinny bundle is now ancient history (in tech terms, anyway). But fuboTV still has a soft spot for sports fans, so it's no surprise to see a CBS Sports Network live stream among its offerings. You can watch CBS Sports Network without cable using fuboTV by grabbing “fubo,” its cheapest package, for $44.99 per month. Or you can upgrade to “fubo Extra,” which offers more channels for $49.99 per month – the CBS Sports Network live stream will still be there if you opt for the larger bundle. Either way, you can test-drive things for a whole week without paying. To do that, just click the link below and sign up for fuboTV's free trial offer.

PlayStation Vue, like some other skinny bundles, divides its bundle offerings up into tiers. You can opt for any of four different bundles. The pricier the bundle, the more channels it offers. Larger bundles always include all of the channels that their smaller buddies do. CBS All Access first arrives with the second-smallest bundle. That would be “Core,” which costs $49.99 per month. Of course, you're free to opt for a larger and pricier bundle if you'd like! You can check out your CBS Sports live stream for free by grabbing PlayStation Vue's free trial offer via the link below.

YouTube TV is Google's skinny bundle offering, and it's a great solution to the problem of how to watch CBS Sports Network without cable. If you're in one of the markets that YouTube TV services, you can grab CBS Sports Network — along with a whole lot of other great channels — for $40 per month. That's after you enjoy your week-long free trial, of course.

DirecTV Now offers subscribers a few different skinny bundle options. The more you're willing to pay, the heftier the bundle that you can take home. Each larger bundle includes all of the channels that its smaller counterparts do, while adding a few new arrivals of its own. Your CBS Sports Network live stream makes its triumphant debut in the second-largest of DirecTV Now's four main bundle options. That would be “Go Big,” a pretty impressive bundle that will cost you $65 per month. Of course, you only have to pay that after your free trial runs out. Grab any of DirecTV Now's bundles for free for a week by clicking the link below. It's risk-free.

Great CBS Sports action belongs on your big screen, so let's talk about how to watch CBS Sports Network without cable on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast devices – among other streaming platforms.

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now all have apps for Roku devices.

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV Now each work great on Fire TV devices.

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now have apps for Apple TV devices.

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now work perfectly with Chromecast devices.

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV have apps for Android TV devices.

If you want to check out your CBS Sports Network live stream on the go, you can do that using your iOS or Android device. Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now all have apps for both iOS and Android devices, so your smartphone or tablet is probably covered!

Hulu with Live TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now also have in-browser apps for major web browsers, so watching on your desktop or laptop computer is always an option, too.

Even video game systems aren't left out. Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV have apps for Xbox One, while PlayStation Vue has an app for – you guessed it – PlayStation video game consoles (specifically, we're talking PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4).

So if you want to watch CBS Sports Network, there's no reason to turn to cable or satellite. Scroll up, grab some free trials, and start to stream CBS Sports Network online today!